jedcstuff

2006-03-29

The amount of work that can be done

In Physics, the quantity of "energy" is defined as the amount of work that can be done in the physical world. In the world of people's affairs, the quantity of "money" is much the same, definable as the amount of work that can be done in the world of people.

And, in the world of people, just as in the world of physics, that amount of work can be used up in wastefulness, or used to create something fine and grand. That is, the amount of potential work only regulates the maximum amount of what could be done, not the existence and quality of what is done.

Concensus Reality Relativity

Learning from the past realities is important for guidance of the present into the future.

Yet the realities of the past are like the realities of the present: there are as many viewpoints as there are eyes to see, ears to hear, minds to interpret, and fingers that point.

Out of the vast array of possible directions one can look at any instant, nearly all must be rejected by the focusing on the particular. Checks continually made as to where to look, what to listen for, and why. So there are lots of those individual viewpoints, lots of little realities, so how much does each weigh when adding them up to determine "Consensus Reality?"

And each issue is neither black nor white usually, but shades between. And oneself is a decider, a king-ruler for picking and choosing amongst the little realties to add up to make the past, each interpreted based on criteria as diverse as one's mood of the moment to so-called laws of the physical universe. And the next moment you the king-ruler of decision of which viewpoint to see from and at what to look at, has changed a bit and may chose differently next time. (Use "queen-ruler of decision" for the womenfolk, of course.)

As for "concensus reality", that reality surely is biased by the group selected for concensus, and is likely not the same "concensus reality" found by a different group, or even the same group at a different time and place and focus of interest. Is there really something that takes a poll of the "reality" of each individual of that group? Or is "concensus reality" actually determined by a typical opinion expressed upon interrogation about something and one's response needs to be close to the opinions of the others of the group. (eg, political party; religious affilliation; or work environment) or one is "suspect" as not agreeing to consensus reality and thus is "crazy."

A colorblind person is likely to not follow the consuensus reality of non-colorblind people as to the naming of the color of a particular something.

Someone who has just ridden a bicycle up and got off it, standing there chatting with a friend, is likely to have a differing reality about riding a bicycle than does the friend who doesn"t know how to ride a bicycle; thus it might be said that the concensus reality between riders and non-riders of bicycles is quite different in significant ways. Are one or the other groups "crazy?" In fact, each group might think that 'crazy" opinion of the other group, and be equally valid... or not.

Even the concensus reality of what is "up" and what is "down" needs to have had instruction in the language of the meaning of up and down; if the subject is taught such that it seems to be "ceiling" up, vs "floor" down, then when the person goes to the room above that room, "ceiling" of the lower room became "floor" of the room above it. Up became down in that person's observation, no longer agreeing with the consensus reality of those that stayed in the original room below.

So, I think that perhaps the modified name "Concensus Reality Relativity" might be an incomprehensible concept for some people; perhaps those fundamentalists of Artisan Temperament are likely to be among those.

There are more people of "Artisan Temperament" than any of the other three Temperaments, possibly because they get to enjoy the harvest which was planted by the Idealists, tended by the Rationals and the Guardians, then eventually picked and savored by the harvesting Artisans. The Artisans get to revel in their winnings, their portion of the harvest, living it up wealthy and honored by fellows, desireable as mates because of their command of physical resources, helpful in raising family. So who would want to be anything other than an Artisan type, that gets all the goodies? Yet without the efforts of the Idealists, Rationals and Guardian Temperament type people, the Artisans would have little to harvest.

Realities vary widely depending on Temperament. Perhaps it would be easier to get consensus realities if only those of the same Temperament type were consulted, thus maximizing the mutual viewpoint basics. Understanding that the contrasting consensusl realities are equally valid for each of the Temperaments, would be a step toward solving the problem. While that effort would be more difficult and rigorous than merely pasting the label "crazy" on the others, it might produce more harmoniously useful results.

2006-03-20

Knowledge Without Wisdom

What if, in some far away land and time, that the educational system there teaches far more knowledge than it does wisdom for use of that knowledge, I wonder. "Knowledge is Power" a motto, but nowhere is seen the motto "Knowledge is Wisdom." Is wisdom really the same as knowledge?

What if, in that hypothetical land and time, that the college profs well teach the findings of the social scientists about the factors that control the voter's information sources by which they make their decisions, and they teach the blunt realities of military science, to a few of the idle kids of the wealthy, who happen to have learned there are easier ways to pass the tests and get the required diplomas for their emergence into the business world; that what works, works.

What if those kids grew up playing computer games that require fast reflexes of hunt and "kill" with never a thought of the larger picture.

What if some of those young adults decide to amuse themselves by applying those principles taught of social and military sciences merged, as if it were a game to be played and won, nothing else involved? Military strategies work even when civilian tools are used instead of guns, acceptable tricks that remove opponents from the picture, and conquering can be done using military-like tactics against an opponent political party who does not comprehend war is being waged as a game by their own countrymen against them, using all the tools they were taught in college.

What psychology to use to get the population to knee-jerk at the critical time. And having won the vote, a mere step in their war game campaign, they methodically continue to use the strategies to rake in the wealth of the nation over to themselves, the pot they rightfully won in the game, belongs to them, right?

Energy sources: energy in vs energy out

Thinking about energy sources, and the sum of all the specific energies that it takes to provide them in an ongoing way, appears to me to be one of the more important endeavors needed in the present day time frame. Yet, there does not seem to usually be an accurate evaluation of all the energy that goes into the devices that produce the energy we use. It is not just the dollar cost of fuel as it goes into the powerplant; this might not be obvious yet.

Abundant economical ever available energy is one of the key ingredients for our level of civilization. Fossil fuels has been the resource that has enabled the building of industrialized civilization. And it is necessary to keep energy available to keep civilization going at our level or better. It is an important issue, yet as the difficulty of providing energy increases rapidly, evaluation of all the factors need re-examination.

For example, a decade or so ago someone made an evaluation of solar cells energy deliverance ability, vs cost of manufacture ... the energy cost of manufacture, that is. This way of thinking seems essential for effective thinking about ways to provide the energy needed now and in future. That report found that it took more energy overall to manufacture the solar cells, than the solar cells would be able to supply in their useful lifetime. The report went on to point out that the places using the solar cells was what made them valuable, since they could be used to power remote devices and facilities by sun power, without having to run powerlines to the distant site, nor endure the cost of transportation and maintenance recharging of batteries to power the remote instruments. Many of the safety telephones along freeways economically use solar cells for this reason, that they do not need power lines run to power the phones.

For the major amount of electrical power used by our country, however, power will go around on existing power lines.

The question becomes how much energy does it cost to conceptualize, design, build, deliver, install, maintain and ensure continual energy input to the energy supplier.

Wind power requires the wind turbines creation, and rent to pay landowner where the windpower generator is located, maintenance of the windmill, and eventual energy cost of recycling or disposal of the worn out machine downstream.

What is the total energy cost that goes into the machine, such as the cost of commute of the employees that build and assemble all the parts, and the energy required to smelt, cast, machine and process its component materials? In this case, it is not likely there will be a cost of ensuring availability of wind to actually input energy to the windmill, but some other kinds of energy sources do have, such as the cost of fossil fuel (including coal) powered generators, and fuel for nuclear reactor powerplants, is a very significant factor, as well as cost of subduing the toxic byproducts produced during such energy provision.

The potentials of Satellite Solar Power Stations in GEO or the Moon, without significantly contributing to greenhouse effect global warming, are not presently economical enough to build despite their attractiveness for abundant electric power delivered worldwide, because of the immense cost (especially including energy costs) of using rocket propulsion to deliver the construction materials up there, along with all it takes to build and maintain that huge equipment up there. If transportation techniques are created that enable them to be delivered up into high earth orbit economicaly, however, creation of those solar electric power stations in space, where there is abundant sun power available 24 hours a day, rain or shine below, could make them highly attractive as power sources. A big "if", however; they have to be made physical reality, to be there to be used in time of need. Meantime, we need to optimally deal with what we have already got.

It is the overall energy it takes to provide an energy source, as compared to the overall energy the energy source delivers to the user, that is the key parameter. Now, how do we implement means for determining the total sum of all the specific energies it takes to ongoingly provide a particular energy source to the user?

2006-03-16

Cluster vignette on "Museums"

Going to museums and zoos with my parents were the big events of my childhood years. Both kinds of places had their own flavor of magical quality, almost alternate universes from my everyday life. Zoos had living creatures of strange shapes, seen from afar, a bit like the pets I strove to have at home as companions. Museums also had some similar creatures that the zoo did, except the ones at museums were frozen in motion, ever unchanging. And the museums had even stranger looking animals. At museums were also many other kinds of relics, collections of interesting things far more diverse and complete than my own collections. Dazzling mineral rock collection displays, seashell collections on display, tools and furniture and relics used by bygone people, there in museums like statues’ messages from the past. Dinosaur skeletons were especially interesting, particularly the Dimetrodon with its sail-like finned spine, not really a “Dinosaur” I’ve since learned. I still have some of my own collections, little treasures; most are stashed away in boxes labeled “museum stuff” to describe contents, buried so well I’ve not seen the boxes in years. I now have plenty of “museum” in my life, recent years volunteering and part-time work in Invertebrate Paleontology, Marine Biodiversity Processing Center, and Crustacea-Isopods at NHMLAC facilities, being one of several people who help do the routine dull repetitive work so the researchers can focus on the main issues. I also volunteer Sunday afternoons at the little Bolton Hall Museum, nearer where I live. Going to museums is still a major event of my life, and now I participate, instead of just observing.

About Me

In 16 schools as I grew up, living in comparable number places, mostly in American Southwest. Most of working life in California. Career in electronics - mostly engineering R&D many companies such as Pertec, Shugart, and Vehicle Security Electronics - other work in surveying and museums. Volunteering for several places including being a member of the staff of Meditation Magazine, Listener for Valley Hot Line, Habitat or Humanity, and at NHMLAC in paleoinverebrates and marine biology crustacea. Experimenter in hobby research in use of microsignals for health. Wrote and published six sci fi novels including "Building Up," "It's Down To Earth," and "Three Species on Lava World." Have several technical papers published on advanced space transportation and utilization, including “Kinetically Supported Bridge Vehicle Lift To GEO” Space 2002 Robotics 2002 Conference Proceedings, ASCE, 2002, 8-21.